Technical Achievement

Innovation & Creativity

Best Student Team

Best Company Team

Best Game

The UK's largest competitive game jam

Now in year two, JAMCHESTER is an annual, weekend-long video game creation competition. It will take place at The Studio event space in the heart of Manchester, UK.

This year’s sponsors include Google Cloud Platform, Unity, Amiqus, and The Studio. Supporters include TIGA, Ukie, and All4Games, while our charity partner is Special Effect.

Teams from major companies and indie devs will compete on a level playing field with the jam’s theme only revealed at the start of the competition.

We will also have a limited number of student teams to give them the opportunity to mix with industry professionals. Participants will have the opportunity to network with other developers, learn new skills and have fun! Think of it as a chance to recharge your creative batteries in a friendly environment.

The jam will be judged continuously with Judges walking round throughout the entire competition, looking at and playing what people are making right from the start to the end. There will be no final presentation necessary as the judges will be following the games through development.

Prize categories will include - Best Game, Best Audio, Best Design & Gameplay, Best Tech Achievement, Best Art & Visual Presentation, Innovation & Creativity Award, Best Company Game, Best Student Game.

Our lead judge is Gary Napper is a Game Designer with 16 Years experience working on such franchises as Burnout, Harry Potter, Family Game Night, Spare Parts and Halo Wars 2 at studios including EA UK, Criterion, Sony, EA BrightLight and Creative Assembly. Gary is most recently is known as the Lead Designer on the Bafta Award winning and industry acclaimed Alien: Isolation. After working with Sony on PlayStation VR. He is currently working as a Game Director at SupermassiveGames (Creators of Until Dawn, TumbleVR and Rush Of Blood) on some new and exciting things with the recently expanded VR team. Follow him on twitter @xopsx and Supermassive games @SuperMGames. Gary will lead a team of industry professional judges and expert jammers to choose the best games of the competition.

Event Schedule The total jam time is 40 hours

Friday 23rd June

19:00 - 19:30 - Registration and Manchester Games Showcase.

19:30 - 20:00 - Theme announcement and Jam begins (starting this late will help people travelling from out of town).

00:00 - Midnight pizza delivery

Saturday 24th June

24hrs - Jam continues onsite. Judges visit teams all day and follow progress of the games

07:00 - 08:30 - Breakfast

10:30 - Mid-morning snacks

13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch

16:00 - Afternoon Tea

18:30 - 20:30 - BBQ

Sunday 25th June

07:00 - 08:30 - Breakfast

10:30 - Mid-morning snacks

12:00 - Jam time ends

12:00 - Lunch

12:00 - 15:30 - Judges/attendees play all games created

15:45 - 16:00 - Judges deliberation

16:00 - 17:00 - Awards ceremony

13:30 - 18:00 - Closing party including Awards ceremony. (As this is a national event, finishing mid-afternoon helps people who are travelling from out of town)

Parking

We have discounted rates at our nearest main car park The Northern Quarter NCP on Church Street. The postcode for this is M4 1LX.

To obtain discounted parking at the Northern Quarter Church Street car park simply ask for an NCP validation ticket at thestudio reception. When you are ready to exit the car park, simply insert your original parking ticket into the payment machines along with the validation ticket to activate the discount.

Watch this video to see how to get from Manchester Piccadilly Train Station to the venue.